XVI — MARY’S APOSTOLATE

Presence of God. — O Mary, Queen of Apostles, create in me an apostle’s heart.

Meditation

1 — Mary is at once the model of contemplative souls and the model of apostolic souls. Indeed, summing up in herself the highest contemplative life and the highest apostolic life, she teaches us that contemplation and apostolate, far from opposing one another, require, sustain, and nourish one another. When contemplative life - understood as assiduous search for union with God - is truly fervent, it cannot fail to make the ardent flame of apostolate arise in the soul. Whoever, in intimate contact with God, has experienced the ineffable reality of his love for men cannot but burn with desire to win them all to this love. Thus - and in the most sublime way - it happened with Mary Most Holy, who, having tasted and penetrated God’s love and having been inflamed by it more than any other creature, more than any other creature desired to lead all men to God. In fact, no one more than Mary collaborated with Christ in the salvation of the human race. A collaboration most intimate and profound: since she, with her blood, furnished the Son of God that flesh and that human life which made it possible for Him, eternal Word, to become like us, to suffer and to die for us on the cross. A collaboration of greatest value, if one considers that Mary was not unconsciously Mother of the Savior, but she herself consented to be so, though knowing from Sacred Scripture that the Messiah would be the man of sorrows, immolated for the world’s redemption; therefore, by accepting to become his Mother, she also accepted to bind her lot to his, to associate herself with all his sufferings. To give the Redeemer to the world, to accept seeing her beloved Son die amid torments, was Mary’s sublime apostolate springing from her immense love for God.

The greater love toward God is, the greater and more effective the apostolate deriving from it is. On the other hand, every work of apostolate that did not derive from charity would be nothing: “If I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor,” says St. Paul, “and if I should deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing” (I Cor. 13, 3).

2 — Intimately associated with Jesus’ redemptive work, Mary fulfilled a universal apostolic mission aimed at the good of all humanity. Yet Mary’s apostolate makes no noise, is not showy, but unfolds in the most humble, hidden, silent way. She gives the Redeemer to the world, but gives Him in the secret of night, in a poor stable; she participates in all Jesus’ life, but participates in the hiddenness of Nazareth’s little house, occupied with humble domestic tasks, amid sacrifices and difficulties of a life rich in exceptionally grave and painful circumstances. And even when Jesus - in the three years of his apostolic life - appears in public to fulfill the mission entrusted to Him by the Father, Mary, while continuing to follow Him and share all his vicissitudes, remains in the shadows. Never do we see her appear beside the Son teaching the crowds; never does she make use of her maternal authority to come near Him; and when she needs to speak with Him while He teaches the people in a house, she remains humbly outside waiting (cf. Mt. 12, 46). Mary’s apostolate is wholly interior: apostolate of prayer and, above all, of hidden immolation by which she adheres with great love to God’s will that asks her to separate from her Son after thirty years spent in sweet intimacy with Him, and to withdraw apart, as if to leave to Apostles and crowds that place which, as Mother, belongs to her near Jesus. Thus, in hiddenness and silence, Mary participates in the Son’s apostolate and sufferings: there is no pain of Jesus that Mary does not taste and relive in herself; her great immolation consists in seeing Him, the beloved Son, persecuted, hated, sought for death, and finally crucified on Calvary; her Mother’s heart feels its profound bitterness, but at the same time accepts all with pure love and offers all for souls’ salvation. Precisely thus Mary reaches the highest peaks of apostolate, that is, by her hidden immolation animated by pure love. And “a little of pure love,” says St. John of the Cross, “is more precious in the Lord’s sight... and brings greater benefit to the Church... than all works put together” (C. 29, 2).

Mary shows us how far from truth we are when, taken by urgency of works, we make our apostolate consist solely in external activity, undervaluing the interior activity of love, prayer, and immolation, on which the fruitfulness of external action depends.

Colloquy

“O Mary, You are our life, sweetness, and hope! Because You alone gave birth to the Lord, You alone took away universal perfidy from the world. You are Mother of mercy! Truly Mother, who washes us from the filth of sins. You gather us, little ones crying in the cradle, You feed us with milk, in your arms You sustain us. And not only Mother, but also medicine have You made yourself for the wretched...

“And moreover, O Mary, beside the Cross You became for us a sea of bitterness because of compassion for the crucified Son and compassion for our souls... But why, O Mother, have You loved us so much? Why so much affection for us? Why do You fill us with our God? Why, I ask, do You inebriate us with love for your Son, while we are unable to return You anything? What advantage is it to You, lover of souls, that we love You and your Son with great love? Are heavenly things not enough for You? Why do You seek earthly hearts, which are indeed most foul and muddy? Take us, huntress of souls, take us and gather us into the bosom of your grace. Who can escape the rays of your pity? No one can avoid the fire of your love, because heaven and earth are full of your benefits... and always everywhere You spread the nets of your goodness. So that from You, sweetest Mother, we cannot reasonably flee, but may always rest in the bosom of your sweetness” (St. Bonaventure).

O Mary, You are more mother than queen! Meditating your life, so humble and simple as the Gospel presents it, I have no fear of approaching you. I too wish to live in poverty and hiddenness, without raptures or ecstasies, without flashes of miracles, without clamorous actions. And thus You make me understand that I too can follow your footprints, that I too can climb the steep path of holiness by practicing hidden virtues. Near you, O Mary, I can remain small and discern better the vanity of human greatness” (cf. St. Therese of the Child Jesus, NV and Poems).

O Mary, who in silence and hiddenness gave the world Jesus, who, while passing unnoticed, participated in all his life, his works, his Passion, teach me the secret of the interior apostolate made of prayer and hidden immolation, known to God alone.